Orlando Employees Reject Salary-for-pension Trade

AROUND CENTRAL FLORIDA

A proposal to cut salaries in exchange for a better pension was rejected Tuesday by Orlando city employees.

Employees voted 1,223 to 585 (67 percent to 32 percent) against the plan to add a cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, to their retirement pay.

Out of 2,204 workers eligible to vote, 1,819 cast ballots, said City Attorney Bob Hamilton, vice president of the city's pension committee. Eleven ballots were disqualified.

The COLA would have provided an annual 2 percent increase in pension payments for retired city employees, but money for the future increases would have come from workers' current pay, reducing salaries by almost 3.5 percent.